ConPolicy publishes Policy Brief on behavioral economics

02/08/2010

Over the last few years, insights into behavioural economics have gained much public attention. With the publication of their international bestseller Nudge, US academics Thaler and Sunstein have inspired a debate about whether and how consumers should be nudged into more responsible consumption patterns. While behavioural economics questions fundamental assumptions of classical economics, its insights are familiar to consumer policy-makers. For years they have focused on the actual rather than assumed behaviour of consumers. Hence this policy brief concludes: Consumer policy should seek an intensive exchange with behavioural economics. Such an exchange would be beneficial for both. Consumer policy would be more theoretically founded, while economic research would gain access to the every-day experiences of consumers. The common objective should be to better understand the preconditions necessary for consumers to consume responsibly. (Download German version .pdf)

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